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As soon as they've crossed Re'lar noticed it, immediately. The only thing that could ruin its plans was there, as certain as Batista was gone forever, unable to compete against his strength with such a poor mind.

He could feel the humming in the air, the vibrations coming from the ancient being known as The One, the only creature able to dispel his presence from Batista. Despite The One couldn't destroy him, he has invested too many years in his plan and he wasn't prepared to give up easily. All of them were going to be trapped and once he has used their vital energies his brothers would raise from the dead. It was ironic, The One was there while he was the one of only of his species, the last chance for their people, so failing wasn't an option.

So he began. Batista began to whisper something strange. It was odd, Batista used to shout, spit and was an asshole, so his silence felt strange and artificial.

It will take some time but it was the only way. They wouldn't notice anything until it was too late for them, first they would notice that their abilities were not working as usual, Esteban couldn't feel the PES energies, Jack's logic would fall down, Mike's jumps and Celeste, poor Celeste, she didn't know anything about her powers, such a pity, but her lack of knowledge was his greater advantage.

Celeste took Mike's hand and, with them at the head, the whole group together followed the path. For all of them, it was at the same time familiar and strange. They could almost swear that they had travelled the same path thousands of times before, but still didn´t know what they were going to find after the next bend of the road. Like a half remembered dream, or a memory of something they only recalled once they were seeing it again.

And at the end of the path, a gigantic tree, so tall that the branches seemed to reach the stars and so wide that its trunk could have homed entire villages. An elderly woman was sitting in one of its roots. She seemed small and fragile, but she was lookind and them appovingly, and with a smile so bright and warm that they all thought about all the love and pride that a grandmother gives to their grandchildrem...even those that didn't have known their grandmothers.

She stood up, and said.

-I see that you have come safely. The princess who don't want to be that. The seer who know what is hidden. The machine that still has some much to learn about humans. The traveller of many paths. And...-She looked at Batista, a confused look in her face-Who are you, my boy? I can't see you clearly.-She moved closer to Batista, and the confusion in her expression turned to shock, and then to horror-No! You can't be here! Nooo!-She screamed in pain, and her scream seemed to resonate with the whole world. The stars started to flicker and fade and the ground rumbled under their feet, before she fell to the ground, unconscious.

They continued walking towards the Unknown. Celeste was holding Mike´s hand, and he squeezed it a little and smiled to comfort her. -It is time, he uttered. But his mind was focused on the task ahead.

And when they finally reached the Great Tree, he gasped. An old woman stood up and spoke words of wisdom, but something went terribly wrong. She fell to the ground unconscious. -NO!!, Mike yelled and knelt next to the woman. -Not now, not when we are this close.

But the worst had happened. And there was an evil presence of some kind among them. An entity they could not fight. Not yet.

Something caught his attention. A black crow with a white mark on its back appeared from the depths of the Great Tree and flew in circles above the group. Finally it landed next to the unconscious woman. The crow started making sounds: -CREEK. CREEK.

Mike sighed and sat down. The crow approached him. -See the marks? It is the sacred Circle of Telurium. The old lady was meant to guide us, but something went wrong. I believe her spirit is now with this crow, but we cannot communicate with it. We have reached a dead end. Now what?

Chä was walking with the group while that slipstream thing was compressing and expanding time and space all around them but suddenly something went wrong: he saw his companions turning into color beams, continuing their way but he was stuck against something invisible in the middle of nowhere.

There was some kind of obstacle that completely surpassed his weird mechanical senses and apparently it didn't have any kind of grabbings, openings or manageable features. He was able to move in a space with the size of a phone booth, but no forward or backward movement was possible. 

Chä took one of his weapons and after calculating stuff for half a minute made a single shot against the invisible wall. Wires and controls appeared from nowhere and he started to realize which kind of space it was. He opened one of his ether screen in the air and was able to attune it with the personal field Celeste, he was able to watch them under the Big Tree. A red dial started to melt in front of his eyes as an old woman fainted in the image. He analyzed some of the controls around him, opening more panels after the first one broke with his shot, and pushed a white button, a CREEK CREEK sounded in his mechanic outpost before it was an echo into the Big Tree scene...

- Celeste, guys... I think we have some control over the situation, I'm not completely sure of what is really happening but I think I found a permutation of Telurium's source code... If you have any kind of requirement only tell me and will try to... arrange things.- He said while manipulating some gears, being able to communicate mentally with the group.

Poor granny, poor fool, passing out when her advice was more needed. She was The One, ancient but unexpectedly week, so week that he needed all his will to retain him from eating her liber and putting out her eyes but, for the moment, the only way to play was playing dumb, letting them believe that the old crane was nuts while his force was increasing, stealing their powers quietly but steadily, with the patience of a predator preparing the fatal strike.

Re'lar cleared his throat before saying "Oh, perfect, the old lady just faints before sorting out this nonsense, just perfect. Two days, you couldn't wait two days to disappear, no, the little princess felt the need to hunt treasures. Ey, don't look at me that way, I've haven't done anything, I'm not that scary... It's not my fault if she wants to take a nap...not my fault, your honour"

Soon they will notice the first effects of their lack of energy and then, 10 minutes later they would be sleeping, and it would be his time, time to kill The One, kill her before she could pass the token to Celeste, she was predestined to be the new The One. The machine would be a problem, but now it wasn't with them, it was his chance to succeed.

Poor young lady, poor fool.

Esteban followed the group to that ominous tree and stood to admire the astonishing size of it and barely noticed what happened to that granny lady and the crow, he could listen to what she said but didn't pay enough attention thinking he could ask again later, but now the old lady layed on the ground.

-Could she still be alive?- he asked approaching her body and after touching her Esteban rolled his eyes until turning them entirely white and tensing up his whole body -ARRGG- it looked painful to him for a split second but then he softened up again to look straight to Batista's eyes.

-I'm sorry, but you shouldn't be here... Neither reach Telurium- and then rapidly grabed Celeste's arm and Mike's jacket pulling them apart from Batista, and following Jack offer Esteban asked him to transpor them again away from Batista's reach -Jack! Then take us to the entrance of Tellurium... Or take Batista away, I don't know, whatever is easier at this moment!- 

Esteban didn't want to stay any longer near Batista for a reason, his face showed fear far beyond anything else, not even death looked scary through Esteban's expression. -She was right, you shouldn't have come here, how pity of me thinking that your "fusion" thing with that creature was a blessing but it's nothing but a curse, it's a collective mind and now Batista is gone forever, just a new pair of eyes and ears-

Celeste felt Esteban holding his hand though a mist in her mind. The world seemed more and more grey and dull with each step. She knew now that something was wrong with Batista, has he done something to her too, like he has done to the old lady? Was she going to die too? It was not supposed to end this way. Danger, she had expected, and the risk of the unknown, but not to be betrayed by one of their own.

And then she felt something else. A pain in her hand, and something soft brushing against it. The crow had ripped off one of her own feathers and had scratched her with it. The crow's feather was now in her hand and the crow had flown to Mike's shoulder.

And then she started to feel the mist in her mind slowly dissolving, and the world adquiring her true colors again. But there were something different this time. Were the world always like that? It seemed like there were new colors in it, although that was not possible. It seemed the same and different at the same time. And had their companions always shimmered like that?

After hearing Esteban's commands, Chä stopped for a second, trying to think in the best way to proceed, suddenly a panel jumped from nowhere, apparently, it had something to do with Celeste. It was as if someone was rewriting... REWRITING HER? That unexpected event gave the golem some info about how to work with the source code of that world. 

He left it working while watching it with the corner of his eye. It was very sad to know about Batista's fate, he knew not all men appreciated the sergeant's manners but under all of his bad moods and hard words was a good fella that gave him his first try into the human world. He wanted to do a good job, even if he thought that using magic or alien technology was like cheating, he knew when it was the only possible way to save lives or help families.

Something in Celeste's new code gave him a clue about how to try, after moving a hand over the screen letting the team jump to a new place, Chä opened a closed panel and was able to link it to Batista. His fingers started to manipulate the code but the creature that possessed him was really hard to understand attending to its programming, so the first step was to take the sergeant's body to the limbo he was in and try to save some of his base material. Maybe there was hope for Batista after all but it was going to be a long and hard work of rewriting. If only it was possible to fight with his new conscience without harming him...

Things were happening quickly all around Mike. He could see, or sense, the struggle Batista was in. And he could feel Esteban´s anxiousness. And when the crow flew to his shoulder, at that very moment, Mike connected with Celeste´s emotions.

-We are all part of this code, he muttered. It was not an easy concept to grasp. But he knew it was the truth. Telurium existed as a single entity with a mind and a purpose. However, there was more to it. Those who crossed the portal became another piece of its code. An ever-changing being.

-We are Telurium now, he said and patted the crow. -Batista is not gone completely. His soul is now one with Telurium. The collective mind has taken over his free will, but his essence is still here. If Celeste truly is The One, she can bring Batista back. In fact, there is very little she cannot do. This place, this Universe, exists with the sole purpose of receiving her at this moment. Every single line of the code, everything around us... Even our own existence... And Chä, you have the power to make the last string of code. Once the Crow flies through the Wall, the code will become visible to Celeste. And she will know what to do. It has to be like that. All this only makes sense if she can claim her birth right.

The golem was trying to reach his code, the fool!. He was unreachable, infinite, unstoppable, he was too complex for him. It was true that he was scratching the surface of his code, but it only felt like tickles in his soul, like a cold glass of water in a hot day. He was safe, he had been safe for generations and a machine wouldn't be able to steal this moment of glorious joy.

He was winning, after centuries of the same struggle between all the forces involved in the power balance in Telurium. It was such a warm feeling that he stopped pretending that he was Batista anymore while a savage laugh, too sharp and dark to be human, drilled into their heads, the laugh of an uncontested triumph.

"Celeste, you can't escape from your fate. Since the day you were born I'm your destiny, surrender, and everything will have ended in a heartbeat" Th,e voice was dark like a moonless night and sharp like a razor knife, but it has something attractive, even hypnotical that was so hard to resist.

But something was happening in Batista's body. Unexpectedly it began to tremble and then Batista's grumpy and familiar voice was there, and he was human. He chuckled ironically before saying

"Not in my shift fucking alien or whatever you are, she is under my protection, so piss off" Batista's face was sweating and it was clear that he was suffering a huge pain only to deliver a message.

"Celeste, your fate hasn't been written yet, you don't know but you have the power to sort out everything, seek it, it's in you, it's your true nature.....Mike, take care of her, you are the one who can take her home, don't let her do something stupid...... Esteban, you humbug, it's high time you showed your powers, if you have any....... Chä Rhynh" said Batista while he was smiling proudly at his mate "You have been the best buddy in my long years
 of service, take care of her and tell my ex-wife that everything was my fault, she'll understand..."
It was the first time that Batista had called Cha using his proper name and the suspicion that he was known his true name all this time was surprising, even moving.

He talked one last time before trembling again
"I don't know for how long I'll be able to contain him....It's really strong and he is growing stronger. Embraced your destiny Celeste, help her guys.....Bye..."

It seemed that everybody had a plan for Celeste. Her father wanted her to be a queen. That thing with Batista's face wanted her to surrender and let him feed in her soul. Her companions wanted her to fight it with her newfound powers. And the crow was talking in her head, teaching her about the long line of guardians of the secrets of Terulium her father was a part of, and how her destiny was to take her place as the Old One once she was dead. But did it matter what Celeste wanted? Well, it mattered to her. She didn't want to be a queen, she didn't want to spend the next millenia chained to this dimension as her guardian and she sure as hell didn't want to be eaten by any cosmic entity. Well, she was choosing her own destiny, and if the power of Terulium was hers to guard, it was hers to share. And while she was at it, she wasn’t letting that idiot, pig-headed, obnoxious cop have his stupid heroic sacrifice. He wasn’t being sacrificed at all.

She reached with her hand into Batista’s body, that Chä Rhynh was maintaining in limbo, and found the spark that still remained of the policeman’s consciousness, and then she fanned that spark into a bright fire with the power of Telurium. She felt Batista pushing against Re’ lar with the new power available to him, and Chä Rhynh rewriting the code in his body every time Re’lar lost its foothold, making every bit of himself Batista reconquered a poisonous territory to the foreign entity. And when Re’lar was just fighting to retain the last scraps of the stolen body, she grabbed it and pulled, and the entity oozed out of the man, like a liquid light, pooling at his feet, and then twisting and reforming in a new form. Re’lar had lost Batista’s body, but even without it, the energy from the Old One that it had stolen was enough for sustaining it. It was still not defeated.

And then, Mike, Batista, Chä Rhynh and Esteban felt for the first time what Terulium really meant. Celeste was sharing with them her connection with this dimension.

-Let’s see who eats who.-she said, and a sword materialized in her hand.

And there it was. Celeste finally claimed her destiny, and her place in the Universe. Mike could only behold in awe and amazement when she reached out and manipulated the very essence of the entity inside Batista. The liquid light twitched and pulsed on the ground, but Batista was free once more. His soul had survived, at least a little bit longer.

The danger was still present. Something in Telerium did not want things to change. The Chosen One had arrived, but her presence was not the final answer to the Code of Telerium. No. The Code did not close circle or resolve its algorithm with her apparition. Instead, it fought her and her companions like were a ... virus.

-In order to save Telerium, we need to break Telerium. I understand it now. Before I knew the path. Now I am walking the path. And that makes all the difference. We need to learn to master it, to master ourselves in this place, and then use that power to rewrite the part of the Code that separates Telerium from our world. And to do that, first we must defeat this ... thing.

Mike looked at the Crow sitting now on the shoulder of the Chosen One. And the Crow looked back at the Traveler. He reached out, and a staff appeared in this hand.

-The Staff of the Wanderer, he announced recalling the name written in the ancient prophecies. And the sword Celeste had was the Sword of Destiny. -Together, we can destroy this enemy.

Mike Topor took a deep breath, and prepared to charge forth and attack.
 

With a neutral expression on his face, Esteban walked calmly towards Batista -It shal be done then, break the rules to rewrite the code- kneeling by the detective -I've only known about my extrasensory perception, astral travels, but this is something I've never done- and by closing his eyes and putting one hand behind Batista's head and the other on his chest he made Batista shine with a golden glow, then a third eye opened on Esteban's forehead -She knows it's your fault, you moron, she just blamed herself to make it easier for you, after all, it's harder to get hurt when you are mad at each other... But you are the one who's going to apologize to her, not your partner-

Esteban and Batista stood up with the cop showing no harm and no tiredness; Esteban finally fully opened his third eye and was able not only to see but to seek cracks through others souls and restore them, and Batista only received damage to his soul, but that "thing" was taking good care to his body. 

Esteban put his hand behind his back and grabbed the gun he picked a while ago -I think you are better with it than me- he said while putting it on Batista's hand -Im not a fighter, but I'm a soldier of light- now he was talking to the rest of the group and his third eye glowed again -I'm opening the cracks on it's soul, it's huge, bigger than space itself, it gained that size through eons but it made it's soul weaker than of a living individual, it has infinite lifes, by killing one other appears, but I oppened the cracks, you hurt one, you hurt them all-

Now the creature that was expelled from the cop's body started to show true fear and before it tried to escape or even make a movement the crow flew and stood in the way preventing it to move. 

Maybe Chä was not able to rewrite or change the code of that creature but he had some aces up his sleeve. He found some new panels, windows, and codes that allowed him to power up Esteban, Topor and Celeste, but since Batista was not comfortable in this kind of world, it will not work with him, but the golem was capable of bringing the old sergeant back home, so he did, but asking him for a last favor: - Old friend, I'm not completely sure of how things are going to end in Telerium but we need an antenna, a kind of decoder of realities. This is nothing difficult, neither mathematically nor magically, we only need you to... To live for another day, to watch our old world and transmit it to us so we can rewrite a new code for this new world, adapting it to its new use: a vessel between realities, a lighthouse for those lost under the power of Telerium's  enemies. Farewell, Batista, but part knowing we will always be around the corner for you...-

After activating all the systems to send back home his friend, Chä continued rewriting stuff while watching his friends fighting the evil creatures, the crow was taking good care of the glowing bad things leader, Celeste knew how to use that sword and Topor joined forces with Esteban they were kind of jumping and hitting all around Telerium. The golem started to send them the coordinates of specific places where their enemies and forces were too strong, so between the four of them that reality had a kind of superpowered ward cleaning down the house, but Batista's part was missing until some time later. 

When the sergeant opened his eyes in the other side part of Telerium started to rewrite itself using the old man's code of honor as a kind of abstract guide about how to create a new power balance in the chaotic dimension, so these five entities changed history and some aspects of reality while the human world was sleeping, hand over hand in a continuous battle against centuries of tyranny, but it was not going to end that easily, their last hope was Topor's traveling nature, he had to give Cha the coordinates to move Telerium into one of the interdimensional Eternal Rivers, so they were unreachable to Celeste's father and enemies but able to continue with their new labor as protectors of the last city.